At home in Asia? Sydney’s Chinatown and Australia’s ‘Asian Century

It is widely recognised that the 21st century is seeing a geopolitical shift in global power relations towards Asia, particularly China. This has led Australia to officially embrace Asia as its regional home. But the neoliberal economic logic underpinning this embrace leads to a narrowly transaction...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of cultural studies 2016-05, Vol.19 (3), p.257-269
Main Author: Ang, Ien
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
21st century
Discourse
Geopolitics
Neoliberalism
Power
Public officials
Threats
Transnationalism
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:It is widely recognised that the 21st century is seeing a geopolitical shift in global power relations towards Asia, particularly China. This has led Australia to officially embrace Asia as its regional home. But the neoliberal economic logic underpinning this embrace leads to a narrowly transactional conception of Australia’s relationship to Asia, governed by an opportunity/threat dichotomy. By contrast, this article describes Sydney’s Chinatown today as an increasingly hybrid, porous and transnational space of uneven and mixed-up, embodied Asian-Australianness. Juxtaposing the dynamic on-the-ground reality of this contemporary Chinatown with government discourse on Australia’s relationship to Asia, as exemplified by the 2012 White Paper Australia in the Asian Century, illuminates that Australia is not yet at home in Asia.
ISSN:1367-8779
1460-356X
DOI:10.1177/1367877915573763